Boats upon Waves

Boats upon Waves

Tawaraya Sōtatsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This work relates closely to a pair of screens by the celebrated early seventeenth-century Kyoto painter Sōtatsu depicting Matsushima, a scenic locale near Sendai in northern Japan named after its tiny islands dotted with pines. The present screen echoes Sōtatsu’s earlier composition with its gold-filled cloud formations and its rocks in vibrant shades of brown, blue, and green. However, growing from the rocks are maple trees with autumnal leaves, not pines, and newly introduced are two empty boats adrift on gently rolling waves. These details generate a somber, mysterious atmosphere.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.